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How many times have heard that or asked that or asked yourself the same question? If you’re anything like me, I got so tired of making the same old things week after week. Cooking became a chore. I was as bored with my cooking as my family was. Cooking was not on my list of favorite things to do.

Going out for dinner is always nice. But boy, has it become expensive! I love to eat good food, but just hated to cook it. I also got tired of spending a fortune for it. That was when I found the most amazing cook book. Now my kids are even chipping in with the cooking. They can’t wait to taste the mouth watering food we make. We all get together to try new recipes. It’s a great way for my kids to learn how to cook, too.

Have you ever wondered how to make Kentucky Fried Chicken? Now be honest, haven’t you always wondered what their secret recipe is? I sure have. Now I know. How about Apple Bee’s Baby back Ribs? Or Olive Garden’s Fettuccine Alfredo with bread sticks? One of my favorites is Red lobster’s Shrimp Diablo. We used to make a couple of trips a week at least, to Taco Bell. Now we make their Nachos and Buurito Supremes ourselves. We never run out of new recipes to make and they taste just like they do in the restaurants. The only difference is, we are having much more fun making them ourselves and saving a bundle of money to boot!

If you would like to learn how to cook amazing dishes at a fraction of the cost, it’s not that hard to do at all. Your friends and family will think you are the best cook ever. Believe me, I know. All of my friends ask me for the recipes and say their husbands are amazed with my cooking. They want me to be their cook. I just tell them their wives can cook the same foods just as easy as I can. Or, if you want to, you can keep your recipe book a secret and have everyone totally amazed with your cooking. Cooking can become a great hobby instead of a drag.

Cathy lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. She loves the mountains, music, outdoors, sports, writing and helping people achieve their goals.

For more information on how to make mouth watering dishes click here:
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The underside of the belly is called the flank. It is the part directly below the sirloin and the short loin. Steaks cut from this area are grainy any chewy. Hence, special cooking methods are employed for flank steaks to reduce their graininess and chewy nature. But these cuts are quite favored for their beefy flavor.

Flank steaks are cut differently from other steaks. The cutting is done in thin slices diagonally along the grain. This makes the steak softer to cut. Flank steaks are tough. They are marinated before the actual cooking, usually overnight. The marinating makes cooking flank steaks a faster process. Flank steaks should not be cooked at anything more than medium rare or they would become tough even to put a bite in them.

The marinade used for tenderizing flank steak is a mixture of various liquids, most of them acidic like curds, lemon juice, vinegar, wine, tomato juice or even fruits such as papaya or pineapple. The best method is to stuff the raw flank steaks into a polythene bag along with marinade and keep it overnight. Marinated steaks cannot be stored for long; hence they should be cooked as soon as the tenderizing is done.

Marinated flank steaks can be cooked by dry heating methods such as grilling, broiling or pan-frying. They need high heat for their striated muscle fibers to be properly done. They need almost double the time it takes for other steaks to be cooked. Flank steaks are also very delectable when they are stuffed and baked or braised. Before serving, flank steaks are cut into thin slices and suitably garnished.

Flank steaks are more difficult to cook than other steaks. They are also priced lower than other steaks. Despite the special care that must be taken to cook flank steaks, they are extremely popular due to their excellent flavor. Steaks marketed under the name ‘London broil steaks’ are usually flank steaks. However, this name has nothing to do with flank steaks, as they have nothing to do specially with London.

Flank steaks are less fattening than loin steaks. A 3 ounce piece of flank steak will have about 192.1 calories. It contains approximately 26% proteins and 12.5% fat.

i-steak.com Steak provides detailed information about steak, flank steak, grilling steak and more. Steak is affiliated with e-chefhat.com Disposable Chef Hats.

Ingredients:

3 cups water
25-30 juniper berries, gently crushed
1 5 lb duck; heart, liver, gizzard and neck reserved
5 large fresh thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
15-25 large dried apricots (about 10 ounces)
2 Tbs red wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Put 3 cups of water, 20 juniper berries and pinch of salt to boil in a large saucepan. Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer 10 minutes. Set broth aside.

Preheat oven to 450°F. Cut wing tips from duck and set aside. Season cavity of duck with salt and pepper. Place heart, liver, and gizzard in cavity, then 10 juniper berries, 4 thyme sprigs, and bay leaf. Tie legs together to hold shape. Place duck, breast side up, in roasting pan. Add wing tips and neck to pan. Pour 1 cup juniper broth over duck. Roast duck in center of oven, about 30 minutes, until it begins to brown.

Meanwhile, bring remaining juniper broth to boil. Add apricots; cover, reduce heat to medium, and simmer until apricots are soft, about 5 minutes. Transfer apricots to a small bowl.

Spoon off 1/2 cup fat from top of liquid in roasting pan, tilting pan. Pour 1/2 cup apricot liquid over duck. Turn duck, breast side down. Pour 1/2 cup apricot liquid over duck. Return to oven; roast 15 minutes. Turn duck, breast side up. Arrange apricots around duck; spoon pan juices over apricots. Drizzle vinegar over duck. Return to oven and roast duck until skin is crisp, about 20 minutes longer. Transfer to cutting board, breast side down; let duck rest 20 minutes.

Discard wing tips and neck. Transfer apricots to bowl. Pour pan juices into medium saucepan and spoon off fat. Add the thyme sprig and boil until juices are reduced to 1 1/4 cups and thickened slightly, stirring occasionally, about 7-8 minutes. Return apricots to juices to rewarm and season with salt and pepper. Turn duck, breast side up. Cut legs from duck. Cut off wings with some breast attached. Cut breasts from duck and thinly slice crosswise. Spoon juices with apricots over duck and enjoy!

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While in the rest of the world we must often make do with Starbucks and the like, can there be anyone who has visited Italy without sampling the delights of a short dark cup of this delicious Italian espresso.

Espresso is to an Italian as a cup of tea to the English and while Starbucks do have their place in the world they lack three things – atmosphere, first class coffee and decent cups to serve it in.

And so if you can’t find good coffee in Starbucks, where can you find it? The answer is simpler than you think – why not serve it in your own home?

Anyone thinking of investing in an espresso machine should consider the Gaggia range. They are well made machines and their home range is descended from their professional coffee makers.

One of the most important things to look for in a home espresso maker is a pump driven system – that was the water is delivered to the coffee at a correct and uniform pressure, absolutely essential for a good espresso.

The choice for many people is the Baby Gaggia, unit that is compact enough for most homes – you don’t need the space for one of those chrome monsters you see in Italian bars – and has been manufactured by the Italian company since 1977.

Filled from the top with distilled water, the newly updated Baby Gaggia can be used with pods or ground coffee. Pods have the advantage of leaving no mess from the coffee grounds as they’re self-contained, but more expensive and give you a limited choice of coffee. So is the new Baby Gaggia a problem child or the perfect espresso maker?

In fact there is almost nothing wrong with the Baby Gaggia – it will require some maintenance from time to time and require a good deal of cleaning like all espresso machines. Probably the biggest drawback is that its case has a plastic finish rather than being chromed, but its recent remodelling means it still looks good in the home and provided that you have good coffee – I recommend Illy for best results – the coffee is perfect every time. My verdict – the Baby Gaggia is a solid machine that performs flawlessly.

David Leigh lives in Barcelona, where he runs a number of successful websites, including